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AN 



EXAMINATION 



OF 



BEAUCHAMP PLANTAGENET^S 



DESCRIPTION 



OF THE 



PROVIl^CE 



OF 



NEW ALBION. 



BY JOHN PENINGTON. 



Mum fingo? num mentior? cupio refelli. Quid eniin laboro nisi verita. 
m omni queetione illustretur.— Cic. Tuse. Quas. lii, 20. 



1840. 



AN 



EXAMINATION 



OF 



BEAUCHAMP PLANTAGENET'S 



DESCRIPTION 



OP THE 



PROVir^CE 



6f 



NEW ALBION. 



BY JOHN PENINGTON. 



Nura fingo? num mentior? cupio refclli. Q,uid enim laboro nisi Veritas 
in omni queetione illustretur.— Cic. Tuse. Quas. iii. 20. 



1840. 



r 



DESCRIPTION 



PROVINCE 



NEW ALBIOJV. 



Wheiv people get up in the world they become tenacious 
of the honour of their ancestry. As with individuals, so 
with nations; the progress of the latter in refinement, is 
also accompanied by a propensity to elevate the characters 
of their founders. Brigands and pirates dimly discerned 
amid the mist of ages, became endowed in the vivid imagi- 
nations of the Greeks, their descendants with the attributes 
of demi-gods and heroes, and through that medium so flat- 
tering to national vanity; the Romans with less fancy, but 
equal pride, regarded reverentially as the founders of the 
eternal city, a band of out-laws and vagabonds. This 
yearning after ancestral fame is not confined to the ancient 
nations of Europe, there are symptoms of its existence on 
this side of the Atlantic, among communities whose histories 
have commenced too recently to receive any adscititious 
embellishment, without rendering both annals and annalists 
ridiculous, whose records time has not vet covered with his 



4 DESCRIPTION OF 

variegated coating of stains and moss, and hung round with 
tfiose mythic festoons that fall so gracefully from the his- 
toric monuments of the old world. They stand out coldly 
and distinctly with their angles still sharp and unbroken, 
and with the nature of their materials and workmanship 
plainly discernible, the very antipodes to the historic pic- 
turesque. 

The Virginians boast of their descent from the cavaliers, 
those gallant gentlemen who so freely expended their blood 
and treasure in support of the royal authority, and who 
when resistance was vain, sought a refuge among the wilds 
of America. Some take what is regarded as still higher 
ground, and pique themselves upon a certain dash of Indian 
blood derived from Pochahonlas. Whatever may have 
been the virtues and merits of the individual, those of her 
race are by no means so strikingly developed as to reflect 
any additional honour upon these claimants of affinity with 
it. The difference between an Indian princess, and a 
Negro princ^ess, is about that between tweedle dum, and 
tweedle dee; but the parlies who boast of their descent from 
the royal stock of Powhattan, look down with great con- 
tempt upon the corn hoeing, and tobacco picking members 
of the blood royal of Guinea. From which, it appears, that 
in Virginian heraldry gules is a more honourable tincture . 
than sable. 

The most vociferous for the honour of their forefathers 
are our brethren of New England. The claims the first 
settlers of that section of our confederacy have upon the 
veneration of their descendants, do not strike us in this 
locality as being quite so clearly made out as they are 
strongly asserted. I cannot, however, unite with those 
who urge against the emigrant puritans, the charge of in- 
consistency, protesting against persecution, until, in the 
course of events, they had it in their power to persecute. 



NEW ALBION. 



Their avowed rule of action, religious, civil, moral, and mili- 
tary, vi^as the Old Testament. They never scourged, mu- 
tilated, or hung a Babtist, or Quaker of either sex; they 
never destroyed in cold blood Indian prisoners of war, or 
consigned them to more protracted deaths by laborious 
slavery in their own, or in a foreign country, without quoting 
chapter and verse as their warranty. It would be irre- 
levant here to adduce instances of the consistency of these 
soi-disant, " dear saints of God." They are recorded by 
their own contemporary historians with a complacency 
truly Mephistophelique, but with apparently such perfect 
consciousness of rectitude of motive, that charity induces 
readers, out of New England, to apply to the cases the lines 
of Pope, — 

" For virtue's self may too much zeal be had, 
The worst of madmen is a saint turned mad." 

The annually recurring chorus of " Pilgrim Fathers," ex- 
cited in time the envy of the neighbouring New Yorkers, 
which feeling was allayed by Mr. Verplank, pointing out to 
them the rich mass of ancestral dignity, embodied in the 
character of their Dutch forefathers. This was, indeed, 
opening a hitherto unworked mine of honour, the existence 
of which had never been even suspected. In an anniversary 
discourse, delivered several years ago, before the New York 
Historical Society, among the reasons why the audience 
should not blush for their Dutch progenitors, Mr. Verplank 
assigns the circumstance of the latter, " amazing the world 
" in the seventeenth century, by an exhibition of tiie wonder- 
*' ful effects of capital and credit, and their shaming the poor 
" prejudices of their age out of countenance by a high 
*' minded and punctilious honesty." Among those, who at 
this period, were amazed at an exhibition of Dutch mer- 
cantile spirit, shaming the poor prejudices of the age, was 



€ DESCRIPTION OF 

the Count D'Estrades. As the general reader is doubtless 
familiar with the occurrence that excited this emotion, so 
rarely evinced by the practised diplomatist, it is not worth 
while to recount it here. But the Count's amazement, 
was exceeded by that of the English; when after read- 
ing the harrowing details of the massacre of their country- 
men at Amboyna, they encountered the closing passage. 
" They had prepared a clothe of blacke velvet for Captaine 
" Towerson, his bodie to fall upon, which being stained 
** with his bloud, they afterwards put to the account of the 
" English Company." (Purchas Pilgrims, vol. i. Lib. v. 

Soon after this item was posted in their books, and which, 
I suppose, is now-a-days to be regarded as an illustration of 
their " high-minded and punctilious honesty; the Hollanders, 
in the same spirit of commercial jealousy which formed 
the main spring of the Amboyna movement, alleged to the 
Japanese, that the overthrow of their government was me- 
ditated by the Portuguese traders. The latter, in revenge 
" amazed " the natives by informing them the Dutch were 
Christians ! With the same fierce unscrupulous determina- 
tion to prevent a competition in trade, they guided in win- 
ter their whilom guests, the English puritans, who left Hol- 
land with the expectation of settling at the mouth of the 
Hudson, to a bleak and distant shore, with the fair pro- 
spect of the extinction of a rival establishment before 
spring. 

Mr. Verplank says something of the Dutch at this period, 
" serving the cause of freedom and reason." What they 
did to serve the cause of reason, does not occur to me; their 
services in the cause of freedom, are somewhat equivocaly 
set forth in the fact, that under Dutch auspices, African slavery 
first made its appearance in this country. When Mr. Ver- 
plank reproaches the descendants of this people, with their 
" degeneracy and comparatively lax commercial morality," 



NEW ALBION. 



it is incumbent on him to show, that the Dutch practice was 
the standard of mercantile ethics in the seventeenth century. 

The colonial establishments in North America, of Spain, 
France, England and Sweden, were all connected with ex- 
ertions, individual and legislative, to Christianize the natives. 
Are there any records or traditions of similar efforts made 
by the Dutch? there are no records, and the traditions 
would be of little weight with those who hold the emphatic 
opinion of the annalist Chalmers (p. 571,) "The traditions 
" of no country merit much regard, but those of such a 
" people, are worthy of none." The relations of the natives 
of North America, with all their transatlantic brethren, are 
chequered webs, in some of which the bright, and in others 
the sombre tints prevail, but with this nation that so much 
"amazed" its contemporaries of the seventeenth century, 
they form a tissue whose uniform darkness presents to the 
philanthropist no enlivening diversity of the Indian bene- 
fited, and the Dutch thereby honoured. 

Some of the contributors to the history of our own state, 
in gratifying their longing after a more brilliant epoch in its 
annals, that the arrival of Penn have had recourse to a 
rare tract in 32 pages 4th, with this title (note 1.) "A de- 
"scription of the province of New Albion, and a direction 
" for adventurers with small stock to get two for one, and 
"good land freely: and for gentlemen, and all servants, 
" labourers, and artificers, to live plentifully. And a for- 
" mer description reprinted of the healthiest, pleasantest, and 
"richest plantation of New Albion in North Virginia, 
'* proved by thirteen witnesses. Together with a letter from 
" master Robert Evelin, that lived there many years ; shovv- 
" ing the particularities and excellency thereoff". With a 
" briefe of the charge of victual and necessaries, transport 
" and buy stock for each planter and labourer, there to get 
" his master 50/. per annum or more, in twelve trades and 



8 DESCRIPTION OF 

" at 10/. charges onely a man. Printed in the year 1648," 
on the next page are " The order Medal and Riban of the 
" Albion Knights, of the conversion of 23 kings, their sup- 
" port," illustrated by three small engravings. The Medal 
presents the effigies of a coronetted personage, whose costume 
approaches to that of the time of the Heptarchy, with the 
legend EDMUNDUS COMES PALATINUS ET GUBER 
N. ALBION. On the reverse are armonial bearings — Two 
coats impaled. The dexter, a hand dexter issuing from the 
parti line grasping a sword erect, surmounted by a crown. 
The sinister is the coat of arms, born by the present Plow- 
den family of Shropshire England — a fesse dancettee with 
two fleurs de lis on the upper points- Supporters, two 
bucks rampart gorged with crowns. Crest a ducal coronet. 
Motto VIRTUS BEAT SIC SUOS. " The order" is formed 
by the achievement just described, encircled by twenty- 
two heads couped and crowned, held up by a savage kneel- 
ing: the whole surrounded with the legend, DOCEBO INI- 
QUOS VI AS TUAS ET IMPII AD TE CONVERTEN- 
TUR, which is the vulgate version of the 15th verse of the 
50th Psalm. This page is farthermore garnished with sun- 
dry other scraps of Latin and English, of no ver'y particular 
bearing upon the matter in hand. 

On the recto of the second leaf " This epistle and preface 
" shows Catoes best rules for a plantation. To the Right 
" Honourable and mighty Lord Edmund, by Divine Pro- 
*' vidence, lord proprietor, Earl Palatine, Governor and 
"Captain General of the Province of New Albion, and to 
" the Right Honourable, the Lord Viscount Monson of Cast- 
" temain, the Lord Sherard Baron of Letrim : and to all 
" other, the Vicounts, Barons, Baronets, Knights, Gentle- 
" men. Merchants, Adventurers, and Planters of the hope- 
" full company of New Albion, in all forty-four undertakers 
** and subscribers, bound by indenture to bring and settle 



NEW ALBION. 9 

" three thousand able trained men, in our said severall 

" plantations in the said Province. Beaucharnp Phinlagenet 

"of Belvil in New Albion Esquire, one of the company, 

" wisheth all health and happiness, and heavenly blessings." 

The "epistle and preface" thus terminates, at the eighth 

page " And since according as other Palatines, as he of 

" Chester and Duresme, made their Barons and Knights as 

" therein many are yet living, you my lord have begun to 

" honour first your own children, I tender my best respects 

" unto your sonne and heir apparent Francis Lord Ployden, 

** Baron of Mount lloyall, Governour, and to Thomas Lord 

" Ployden Baron of Roymont High Admiral: and to the 

"Lady Winefrid Baroness of Uvedale, the pattern of mild- 

" ness and modesty ; and to the Lady Barbara Baronesse of 

" Ritchneck, the mirror of wit and beauty, and to the Lady 

" Katherine Baronesse of Prince * * t, that pretty babe of 

"grace, whose fair hands I kisse, hoping on your Lordships 

" invitation, C. C. T. and your two baronets L. and M. to 

" get them as they promised to goe with us. I hope to get 

" your knights and two hundred planters, on this side ready. 

" And thus with tender of my service to your Lordships, 

" and all the company, 1 rest 

" Middleboro this 5 of ) Your humblest servant 

" December 1648 ) Beauchamp Plantagenet.'^ 

This " description " is classed among the historical mu- 
niments of Pennsylvania; its claims to be continued there, it 
is my present purpose to investigate. 

Juliet was more influenced by her feelings than by her 
judgment, when she came to the conclusion that as " a rose 
under any other name, would smell as sweet," there was 
nothing in a name. The chronicler of the Palatinate of 
New Albion signs himself Beauchamp Plantagenet. The 
junction of these two magnificent surname?, savours strongly 
2 



10 DESCRIPTION OF 

of the adventurer. Like the plebian alias of Altamont 
Mortimer Montmorenci, he has found out " where a com- 
" modify of good names was to be bought," and has made 
the common mistake in such cases of purchasing too largely. 
The suspicion excited by his name is increased by a notice 
of the former grandeur of his family, abruptly introduced 
into the midst of an inflated account of the state of the 
times. *' Then perusing my old evidences, I found my aun- 
" cester Sir Richard Plantagenet had Chawton, Blendworth, 
" Clanfield and Catrington in Hampshire. But in those civil 
" wars in Henry the Sixth's time, much like those of the 
" Guelfs and Gibellines in Italy, all was lost." 

Some of the histories of the counties of England, are so 
ample in detail, that in the deduction of manorial property 
each fee is pursued throughout from the Doomsday Lord 
to the then proprietor, and so comprehensive as to give 
geneological notices of all who make any pretensions to 
distinction. It is probable, therefore, that in Warner's col- 
lections for the history of Hampshire, in 6 vols. 4to, there 
are full historical notices of these four places. This work 
I never saw, but from other sources have gleaned some 
facts, which rather invalidate the "old evidences" of Mr. 
Plantagenet's family importance. Clenfield or Clanfield, 
according to the Notitia Monastica of Tanner, (p. 1G2 edit. 
1744,) was granted by Edward II. in the year 1313, to the 
Church of St. Mary, at Southwyke, and at the suppression 
of the religious houses by Henry VIII. was given to John 
White. So it appears, that for upwards of a hundred years 
both before and after " the civil v^'ars in Henry the Sixth's 
time " Clanfield was not in possession of a Plantagenet. Again, 
among the parochial notices in "The Annual Hampshire 
Repository " Winchester, 1799—1801, it is stated that at the 
commencement of the civil wars a part of Kateryngton or 
Catrington, was released by Henry Kewyk to William Port 



NEW ALBION. 11 

Sir Richard Plantagenet's ownership thereof, not being in 
the sh'ghtest degree alluded to. The name does not appear 
in Berry's folio of Hampshire pedigrees, nor among the mag- 
nates of the same county, in the 12th year of the reign of 
Henry VI., a list of whom is preserved in Fuller's Worthies 
of England. 

I have marveled that when on the subject of his lineage, 
Mr. Plantagenet did not inform his readers of the royal 
blood in his veins. Of this interesting circumstance the 
world would probably have remained ignorant, had it not 
been announced in the " Sketches of the primitive settle- 
"ments on the river Delaware, by James N. Barker," 
that the historian of New Albion was *' a descendant of 
kings!" The really pleasant and ingenious writer of these 
sketches, seems to be a gentleman for whom a flight of fancy 
has stronger charms than the severity of historical research, 
and who finds the simplicity of early American annals insi- 
pid without a dash of the melo-drama. He would greatly 
have enhanced the gratification arising from his conclusion 
had he communicated the geneological data, by which he 
arrived at it. But with some historians an assumption on 
the strength of fancy, is a more congenial and much easier 
employment than that of knocking the dust off' of old books 
in verifying facts. To the familiar story told by Peck, 
(Desiderata curiosa VH. 15.) Mr. Barker must have ima- 
gined a sequel — that honest Richard not inheriting the am- 
bition of his crooked back sire, soberly settled down, begat 
sons and daughters, and thus the name and the line were 
continued to the representative of both in 1648, Beauchamp 
Plantagenet of Belvil. In history, fancy on fact seems to 
be canonical, but fancy on fancy is as heterodox, as colour 
on colour, or metal on metal in heraldry. The contribu- 
tion to Peck's book, as may be learned from Master's re- 
marks on Walpoles Historic doubts on the life and death of 



1% DESCRIPTION OF 

Richard III. in the 2d vol. of the ArchcElogia, was a literary- 
hoax, drawn up and communicated to a Dr. Warren, who 
was Peck's informant, in order to see how far his credulity- 
would carry him, and to expose the absurdity of the anti- 
quaries of the day. The " Spartam nactus es, hanc onna ' 
would, I think, have authorized Mr. Barker so to extend the 
dramatic license he had assumed, as to include and endow 
with interest, some of the fellow subjects of Plantagenet — 
there's a Master Evelin for instance, who could have been 
brought forward as *' A Knight Templar in disguise," whilst 
Captains Brown and Claybourn might have figured as " Eng- 
" lish barons exiled by the tyranny of King John, previously 
*' to the signing of Magna Charta." These embellish- 
ments which are deemed appropriate, are suggested to Mr. 
Barker, in the event of his "fine epopee" as the historian 
Niebuhr would have termed it, attaining to a second edi- 
tion. 

After the ancestral flourish just noticed, Mr. Plantagenet 
received from a company intending to emigrate, a com- 
mission to examine the different English plantations. His 
choice fell upon New Albion, in which, after an exploratory- 
tour, he obtained from the Lord Governour under the Pro- 
vince seal, a grant of the manor of Belvil, containing ten 
thousand acres. He then returned to Holland, " where most 
'^ happily, the second time meeting his lordship, and perusing 
" by his noble favour, all his lordship's cards and seamen's 
*' draughts, seventeen journall books of discoveries, voiages, 
" huntings, tradings, and several depositions, under seal of 
" the great Bever, and fur trade, rich mines and many 
" secrets, and rarities," he concocted this description. The 
topographical knowledge of the two, enables them thus 
boldly to strike out the boundaries of their teritory, "Our 
*•' south bound is Maryland north bounds, and beginneth at 
/' Aquats on the Southermost, or first Cape of Delaware Bay, 



NEW ALBION. 13 

" in thirty-eight and forty minutes, and so runneth by or 
" through, or including Kent Isle, through Chisapeack Bay 
" to Pascatway, including the falls of Pawtomecke, over to 
*' the head or northmost branch of that river, being three 
" hundred miles due west, and the?ice northward io the head 
^^ of Hudsons river fifty leagues, and so down Hudsons river 
" to the ocean, sixty leagues, and thence by the ocean and 
" isles across delaware Bay to the south cape fifty leagues ; 
" in all seven hundred and eighty miles. Then all Hud- 
" son's river, Isles, Long Isle or Pamunke, and all Isles 
"within ten leagues of said province being." (p. 26.) 'Tis 
an easy matter to go three hundred miles due west, from 
the southermost cape of Delaware, but when at that point 
which is in Virginia, beyond t!ie Alleghany mountains, sur- 
veyors, excepting those of New Albion, would be puzzled 
to strike the head of the Hudson by running a north line, 
and that of fifty leagues only. Several pages are devoted 
to particular descriptions of " nine choice seats for Eng- 
" lish:" but one or two of these can be recognised; thus " The 
" sixt is an He called Palmer's He, containing three hundred 
" acres, half mead halfe wood: in it is a rock forty feet high, 
" like a towr fit to be built on for a trading house, for all 
"the Indians of Chisepeack Gulfe; it lieth a mile from 
" each shore, in Susquehannocks river mouth, and there four 
" Backers will command that river, and renue the old trade 
"that was; it lieth in forty degrees and twelve minutes it 
" is most healthy, but cold neer the hils, and full as all the 
" seventeen rivers there of eleven sorts of excellent fresh 
" fish ; the Indians instead of salt doe barbecado or dry and 
" smoak fish to each house, a reek or great pile, and ano- 
" ther of sun dried on the rocks, Strawberries, Mulberries, 
"Symnels, Maycocks and Horns like Cucumbers." (p. 25.) 
This renewing the old trade with four sakers was continu- 
ing the same system of commercial relations with the na- 



14 DESCRIPTION OF 

tives, that was commenced forty years before, for the be- 
ginning of trade on the Chesapeake, according to Thomas 
Studley, the first cape merchant in Virginia, was in the 
way of barter exchanging for corn, " stores of sakre and 
musket shot," (Smith's Virginia, Chap. II.) (Note 2.) The 
curious inquirer who is led by his interest in our early his- 
tory to attempt applications of these several descriptions to 
localities within the bounds of New Albion will be sadly 
perplexed, particularly with the ninth " called Mount Ploy- 
"den the seat of the Raritan King, on the north side of this 
" province, twenty miles from Sandhay sea, and ninety 
«' from the ocean next to Amara hill, the retired Paradise of 
" the children of the Ethiopian Emperor, a wonder for it is 
" a square rock two miles compasse * * fifty foot high," 
(the height cannot be ascertained from the copy before me, 
as two letters have been cut away from the page by the 
knife of the binder) " a wall-like precipice a strait entrance 
" easily made invincible, where he keeps two hundred for 
" his guard, and under it a flat valley, all plain to plant and 
" sow," (p. 26.) 

The conclusion seems unavoidable, that though kings can 
do no wrong in England, their descendants can tell lies in 
Holland. That this brace of Palatines, never visited the 
country they affected thus accurately to describe, is placed 
beyond question, both by the internal evidence of their 
" Description," and by a passage in Winthrop's History of 
New England, noticing the arrival at Boston, in 1648, of 
" one Sir Edmund Plowden, who had been in Virginia about 
" seven years. He came first with a patent of a county 
" Palatine for Delaware Bay; but wanting a pilot for that 
" place, he went to Virginia, and there having lost the estate 
" he brought over, and all his people scattered from him; he 
" came hither to return to England for supply, intending to 
" return and plant, Delaware, if he could get sufficient 



NEW ALEION. 15 

"strength to dispossess the Swedes." (ii. 325, edit. 1825.) 
Now Plantagenet, repeatedly speaks (pp. 8. 13. 22.) of his 
patron's knowledge of the country, derived from his seven 
years personal observation, and that he was (p. 8.) " a tried 
" and seasoned man, and excellent pilot in all this land and 
"seas to trade and settle us," that (p. 19.) the plantation 
had been commenced several years before the date of this 
visit to Boston, whilst at Watcessit, " were seventy English, 
" as master Miles deposeth, he swearing the ofFicers there to 
" his majesty's allegiance, and to obedience to your Lord- 
" ship as Governour." — (p. 23.) 

Into one map only have I found this Province admitted, 
" a Mapp of Virginia discovered to ye Hills, and its latt: 
" from 35 deg: and 1-2 ncer Florida, to 41 deg: bounds of 
"New England. Domina Virginia Farrer Collegit. Are 
" sold by I. Stephenson, at ye Sunn below Ludgate, 105 1." 
The details of this curious production, harmonise in some 
measure with the data, furnished by the Description of New 
Albion. " Lord Delewar's Bay and river," are laid down 
with the remark, " This river the Lord Ployden hath a 
" patten of, and calls it New Albion, but the Swedes are 
" planted in it, and have a great trade of Furrs." The Dela- 
ware and Hudson are made to form in their courses sen-- 
ments of circles, whose chords are nearly East and West 
lines: again, on the other hand there are some material devia- 
tions from the description, — a West line, three hundred miles 
from the Southermost Cape of Delaware, extends a consi- 
derable distance into the Pacific Ocean, or as it here called, 
" The Sea of China, and the Indies." These and other 
geographical capricios, authorize the observer to attribute 
both " mapp " and " description" to the imaginations of their 
respective authors. — (Note 3.) 

loost Hartgers, a contemporary writer, in his Beschrij- 
vinghe Van Virginia, Nieuw Ncdcrlandt, &lc., Amst, 1051, 



16 DESCRIPTION OF 

says '' a certain Englishman, who called himself, Sir Ed- 
" mnnd Ployden, and gave himself the title of Earl Palatine 
" of New Albion, pretended that the country on the West 
*' side of the North River, as far as Virginia, was his pro- 
" perty under a grant from James, King of England; but 
*' remarked, he would have no misunderstanding with the 
" Dutch, but was much offended with, and bore a grudge 
*' against John Prins, the Swedish Governor in the South 
" River, in consequence of receiving some affronts, which 
" are too long to record, but which he would take an op- 
" portunity of resenting and possessing himself of the South 
" River." As nothing is said to the contrary, it must be in- 
ferred that Sir Edmund's pretensions were set up at the 
safe distance of Virginia; for this braggadocio attitude could 
not well be assumed in a country under Dutch control, 
without both claim and claimant running some danger of a 
simultaneous extinction. The Swedish establishments on 
the Delaware evidently existed by the sufferance of the 
Hollanders, and the tenure by which they were held seemed 
to have been to keep out interlopers of other nations. In 
1643, a party from New England under Lamberton, whilst 
endeavouring to obtain a footing on the river, was at the 
instigation of the Dutch Resident seized by the Swedes, and 
came very near forming the dramatis personae of a second 
representation of the Amboyna tragedy. The threat in this 
case prevented any competition in the trade for beaver 
skins, as effectually as the performance twenty years before 
secured the monopoly of cloves. In 1G55, soon after the 
New Haven people had abandoned their intentions of set- 
tling their purchased lands on the Delaware, the Dutch find- 
ing no farther necessity for their Swedish feudatories, 
ejected them from their fief. As confirmatory of this view 
of the colonial relations existing between these two nations, 
the fact may be adduced that their bloodless squabbles 



NEW ALBION. 17 

were always intermitted when the EngHsh appeared in the 
river. 

In this account of *' the healthiest, plcasantest, and rich- 
"est plantation in North Virginia, proved by thirteen vvit- 
** nesses," are misrepresentations and inaccuracies, which 1 
proceed briefly to notice. The reader is told (p. 7) of 
" twenty-three Indian Kings, under the command of this 
" our Lord Royal," the origin doubtless of the bordure of 
crowned heads that occurs in the order of the Albion 
Knights. So perfect was the subordination of the natives, 
" that any without his lordship's stamped badge, approach- 
"ing within twenty miles of his plantation, or ten of his cat- 
" tie were killed, and that valiant Captain Freeman lately 
" killed three Indians so without badge encroaching," (p. 23.) 
One is at a loss which most to admire, the brilliancy of this 
system of Indian relations, or the boldness by which it was 
maintained, when, as has been before remarked the whole 
force of the Palatinate amounted to but seventy men. This 
account of the effectiveness of the Indian bureau of the go- 
vernment, was intended to produce a favourable impression 
upon adventurers; but it is as much the coinage of Mr. 
Plantagenet's brain, as his description of Mount Ployden or 
the evidences of the grandeur of his ancestor Sir Richard. 
The sovereignty of the country at this time was in the Iro- 
quois. Offsets of this warlike and imperious people, under 
the name of Minquas will be found in the contemporary 
maps dotted through this section to bridle, perhaps, the con- 
quered tribes of the race, known to the early French writers 
as the Algonquin and recently most affectedly called Algic 
by Mr. Schoolcraft. Would the Iroquois endure in their 
own or permit upon the persons of their tributaries, this ex- 
ercise of authority, backed by seventy men only? 

At page 17, two thousand Indians, " armed with guns," 
including the Mohawks, drove in the Dutch boors from their 
3 



18 DESCIPTION OF 

out settlements to their forts on the North River. The 
Mohawks were never engaged in hostilities with the Dutch, 
but when the latter were waging war with the surrounding 
Algonquin tribes, a few years before the date of this de- 
scription, made their appearance as peace makers not war- 
riors. Their interference was so effective, that a general 
pacification was the result, (note 4.) In the same page it 
is asserted that at this period Manhattas contained more 
English than Dutch! and at page 28, that peaches were so 
abundant at this early stage of the plantation, that hogs 
were fed with them — one man having an orchard of ten 
thousand trees. The proverbial improvidence of the In- 
dians becomes questionable, when settlers are assured p. 21, 
they " may have from them two thousand barrels of corn, 
" at twelve pence a bushel in truck." Many in our com- 
munity are descended from the Swedish emigrants to the 
banks of the Delaware; Mr. Plantagenet's lucid account of 
the first appearance of their forefathers in this region, will 
be to them both novel and interesting. In the year 1640, 
the Dutch " in their West-India Fleet, battered by the Span- 
"ish Armado, brought home forty Swedish poor soldiers; 
" and hearing that Captain Young and Master Evelin had 
" given over their Fort, begun at Eriwotneck within Dela- 
laware Bay, there halfe starved and tottered, they left 
them," p. 17. 

Mr. Plantagenet is rather loose in statistical matters; 
thus, although one hundred thousand English had died in 
Virginia, the number in 1648, was eight hundred thousand. 
This estimate exceeded the actual number, by about seven 
hundred and seventy-five thousand. Again two thousand 
Indians armed with guns, at p. 17, are reduced to eight 
hundred naked and unarmed at page 20, but then at page 
22, the " naturals " rally in great force, for nearly three 
thousand are mustered and told off by kingdoms, among 



NFW ALBION. 19 

whom figures the King of Ramcock, with a hundred men, 
(note 5.) Five " of his Lordship's sixe good free-holding 
towns in Long Isle, " are enumerated at page 23. In ad- 
dition to occupying a respectable space in the general his- 
tories of North America, this Island has been made the sub- 
ject of two special publications — a sketch, brief, but of great 
merit, by Silas Wood, and recently a somewhat volumi- 
nous history, by Benjamin F. Thompson, but no where is the 
slightest allusion made to " his Lordship," or to his rights, 
manorial or proprietary. 

This tract has now, it is presumed, been sufficiently ana- 
lyzed to show that it is not an authentic document, although 
it has been so regarded at different periods by historical 
writers of various merit; (note 6) a few words will express 
my conception of what it is, — the joint production, with the 
object of raising money of a decayed actor, and a broken 
down pettifogger. I write the history of this transaction 
not from data, but as an ingenious German lately wrote a 
history of Rome from *' long meditation on the subject." 
The pettifogger is identified in the self-styled ("die hem liet 
noemen," as Hartgers justly words it) Sir Edmund Ployden, 
Earl Palatine of New Albion, the actor in Beauchamp Plan- 
tagenet of Belvil, Esq. The former contributed the legal 
and genealogical matter, and also, to him the description 
owes the faint tint of topographical knowledge that per- 
vades it; the result, probably of occasional gossip with the 
New Amsterdam skippers that frequented Jamestown. 
Whether his residence in Virginia was voluntary or not, it 
is impossible to say. The climate of that country ^r seven 
years, was the usual prescription in those days by the Old 
Baily doctors, for that degree of morbidness of the moral 
sensations, which leads the patient to confound the diffe- 
rence between the meum and tuum. But let that pass. 
This man had obtained some knovvledore of the existence of 



20 DESCRIPTION OF 

a patent for New Albion, or perhaps, had purloined the in- 
strument itself, assumed the name of the patentee, and with 
the assistance of his comrade, the ex-actor, whose profes- 
sional propensity for rant and fi'stian is distinguishable 
throughout, set forth his pretensions in the pamphlet under 
examination. This view is countenanced by a passage in 
the colonial records of Maryland, printed in the collections 
of the New York Historical Society, III. 379. The Dutch 
maintained, in 1659, that Lord Baltimore had no more 
claim to the Delaware than " Sir Edmund Ploythen in for- 
" mer time, would make us believe he hath unto, when it 
" afterward did prove, and was found out that hee only subup- 
'^ tiff and obreptiff hath something obtained to that purpose 
" which was invalid." 

This scheme was favoured by time, place and circum- 
stance. At the close of the year 1648, Holland was the ral- 
lying ground of fugitives from England, both Royalists and 
Presbyterians. The expectations of both at home had been 
crushed by the decided ascendancy of the Independants. 
America had become the asylum of many, and more were 
doubtless revolving in their minds the chances of " the Vir- 
ginia voyage" when this enterprize was announced. Territo- 
rial grants with jura regalia to the grantees were known to 
have been made. With that of Nova Scotia to Sir William 
Alexander, afterwards Lord Stirling was connected a here- 
ditary order of Baronets, whose " orange tanny ribbon " is 
still displayed on days of court ceremony. But to make 
this feature of the scheme more imposing, a chapter is de- 
voted to " Counts or Earls created, and County Palatines, 
*' and our Province and County Palatine, Liberties, and 
" the ancient family twelve hundred years of our Earle Pa- 
" latine from the Saxons in England, his pedigree and alli- 
" ance." In the course of this curious chapter, the names 
of Selden, Coke, Davis and Bracton are put in requisition 



NEAV ALBION. 21 

to maintain tlie pretensions of Mr. Plowden to regal juris- 
diction in America. Selden had better been let alone; far 
from upholding, he seems inclined to show but little counte- 
nance to this degree of English nobility. The whole tenor 
of his observations on the subject, is that of coldness and 
distrust. (Titles of honour. Part. II. S. VII.) Still more 
unfortunate are the copious quotations from Coke and Sir 
John Davis, as what is extracted from these ancient authori- 
ties, has reference only to the Palatine dignity, as it existed 
before the severe curtailment of its attributes by the statute 
XXVII, Henry VIII. 

The prospectus of Plowden and Plantagenet, appealed to 
the associations of the cavaliers through an accomplished 
leader, high descended and with noble connexions, the dis- 
penser of orders, medals, and ribands; to the prejudices of 
the roundheads, by a declared preference of the Calvinist 
form in the ecclesiastical polity of the Palatinate, and to the 
political predilections of both by asserting, p. 27. " For the 
"Politique and Civill Government, and Justice, Virginia and 
" New England is our president." It held out to all security 
of person and property, "no Indians neer;" eight hundred 
" thousand Virginians on one side, on the other eight thou- 
" sand English, in sight five towns on the Connecticut, and 
"New Haven being populous;" "all former patents in- 
" eluding Maryland being examined and found void," and 
preserving a most discreet silence upon the strength of the 
Dutch and Swedish establishments in the very heart of the 
territory. It described a region whose products were so 
rich and varied, that '• he that is lazy and will not work, 
" needs not fear starving " — where " the soldier and gentle- 
" man wanting employment, and not born to labor without 
'•' going to war to kil Christians for five shillings a week in 
" the mouth of the roaring cannon, or in a siege threatened 
" with famine and pestilence; and ten together against a 



22 DESCRIPTION OF NEW ALBION. 

" few naked savages, may like a devout apostolique soldier 
" with sword and the word to civilize and convert them to 
" be his Majesty's lieges, (note 7) and by trading with them 
" for furs, get his ten shillings a day, and at home intermix- 
" ing sport and pleasure with profit, store his parks with 
" elks and fallow deer are fit to ride, milke, or draw the 
" first as big as oxen, and bringing three a year and five 
" hundred turkeys in a flock, got by nets in stalking, get his 
" five shillings a day at least." In fine it threw out the com- 
mon lure of the day to adventurers to America gold and 
silver. 

It cannot now be ascertained if any were swindled out 
of the pittance, the civil wars had left them through this 
impudent fabrication. I am inclined to believe that it incon- 
tinently made its projectors the laughing stock of their coun- 
trymen in Middleburgh, instead of elevating them as it has 
since done to the rank of founder and analist of a colony. 

If thus early this printed trash became the materials of 
history, it is not surprising, that narratives ivriiten twenty 
centuries ago of events that occurred six hundred years 
before, were regarded by a modern German manufacturer 
of ancient Roman history as of less value than " old songs." 



IT T E S. 



NOTE I. 

So rare is it that besides the copy in the Philadelphia Library, 
I have met with notices of but three others. One is enumerated 
by Bishop Kennet in his Bibliothecse Araericanse Primordia (p. 244) 
among the donations to " The Society for the propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign parts," another in the collection of Mr. Aspin- 
wal, American Consul in London, and the third in the catalogue 
of the curious library of the Hon. Mr. Nassau, sold some years 
ago in London. These two last notices may refer to the same 
copy. 



NOTE IL 

This Island no longer retains the name of Palmer. There is 
an interesting piece of local history connected with it, which I 
transcribe from Fuller's Worthies of England, (L 387 4 to edit.) 
" Edward Palmer Esquire, (uncle to Sir Thomas Overbury,) was 



24 DESCRIPTION OF 

" born at Limington, in this county (Gloucester) where his ances- 
" try had continued ever since the conquest. 

" His plentiful estate offered him opportunity to put forward 
'• the ingenuity impressed in him by nature, for the public good; 
" resolving to erect an academy in Virginia, in order whereunto 
" he purchased an Island called Palmer's Island unto this day, 
"(about 1660;) but in pursuance thereof, was at many thousand 
"pounds expense, (some instruments employed therein not dis- 
" charging their trust reposed in them with corresponding fide- 
" lity.) He was transplanted to another world, leaving to poste- 
" rity the memorial of his worthy but unfinished intentions. 

" This Edward Palmer died in London, about the year 1625." 
It must be to this island that Captain William Clayborne, who 
made so prominent a figure in the early annals of Maryland, al- 
ludes when he petitions the king in 1638 for redress of grievances, 
he alledges to have endured from Lord Baltimore's people, " And 
" the petitioner having likewise discovered (and established) a 
" plantation and factory, upon a small Island in the mouth of a ri- 
" ver at the bottom of the bay, in the Susquehannock's country, at 
" the Indians desire and purchased the same of them; by means 
" whereoff they are in great hopes to draw thither the trade of 
" beavers and furs, which the French now wholly enjoy in the 
" great Lake of Canada, which may prove very beneficial to your 
" majesty, and the commonwealth; but by letters sent him thence- 
" forth, your petitioner is advised that the Lord Baltimore's agents 
" are gone with forty men to supplant the petitioners said plan- 
" tation, and to take possession thereof and seat themselves 

" thereon." 

Bozman's Maryland, p. 332. 



NOTE HI. 

This map maker's ignorance of the breadth of North America, 
was countenanced by high authority — " And now all the question 



NEW ALBION. 25 

" is only how broad the land may be to that place from the bead 
" of James River above the falls; but all men conclude if it be not 
" narrow, yet, that there is and will be found tlie like rivers issu- 
" ing into a south sea or a west sea, on the other side of those hills, 
*' as there is on this side when they run from the west down into 
" a east sea after a course of one hundred and fifty miles; but of 
" this certainty Mr. Hen. Briggs, that most judicious and learned 
" mathematician, wrote a small tractate and presented it to the 
" most noble Earl of Southampton, then Governor of the Virginia 
" Company in England anno. 1623, to which I refer for a full in- 
formation," (A perfect description of Virginia 1649 4to., reprinted 
in II. Trans. Mas. Hist. Soc. IX. 115.) Thus it would seem that 
grants of territory extending from sea to sea, were made upon tlie 
presumption, that the seas were nearer three hundred than three 
thousand miles apart. 



NOTE IV. 

The Dutch made strong and repeated professions of friendship 
for the Irquois, the value of which is clearly indicated in Le voy- 
age et naufrage du P. Crespel, p. 55. " Les Hollandois avoient 
" un fort Ji peu de distance, des terres des Agniez, (Moliawks) 
" and ce fort etoit situe sur une riviere nommee Maurice, dont le 
" cours tendoit au sud. Les Francois and les Hollandois cntre- 
" tenoient une bonne intelligence. Les deux nations etoient unies 
" au point que les Francois lorsqu' ils avoient guerre avcc les Ir- 
" quois etoient avertis par les Hollandois des mouvemens, and des 
" projets de ces peuples qui venoicnt a. leur connoisance.'' This 
curious piece of information is derived from the " Relations an- 
luielles du Canada." 



26 DESCRIPTION OF 



NOTE V. 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Heckevvelder is not alive to give 
the meaning of this choice specimen of aboriginal euphony. In 
his time he w^as regarded as universal referee and prime autho- 
rity in these matters, and it is but doing justice to the worthy old 
gentleman's obliging disposition, to say that all inquirers were an- 
swered. Mr. Heckewelder may have been a philologer of acumen, 
and, moreover, au fait in the niceties of the language of his favourite 
tribe; but some of his solutions strike the general reader, myself 
among the rest, as not being particularly happy. But the present 
is not the proper occasion on which to point out those infelicities. 



NOTE VI. 

This list I believe embraces them all: — 

The history of the Colony of Nova Caesarea or New Jersey, by 
Samuel Smith, Burlington, 1765, 8vo. 

An examination of the Connecticut claim to lands in Pennsyl- 
vania, Philadelphia, 1774. This writer makes the grant to Ploy- 
den, the foundation of the Duke of Yorks grant in 1 664. 

Both the editions of the Annals of America by Abiel Holmes, 
D. D., 1805 and 1829, 2 vols. 8vo. 

In an address to the associated members of the Philadelphia Bar 
by William Rawle, in 1824, the probability is expressed, that Wil- 
liam Penn on reaching the shores of the Delaware " found a few 
remnants of Sir Edmund Ployden's colonists. 

History of the State of New York, by Joseph W. Moulten, 
Part II., Novum Belgium New York, 1826, 8vo. 



NEW ALBION. 27 

Sketches of the Primitive Settlements on the River Delaware, 
by James N. Barker, Philadelphia, 1827, 8vo. 

History of Pennsylvania, by Tliomas F. Gorden, Philadelphia, 
1829, 8vo. 

History of New Jersey, by the same, Trenton, 1834, 8vo. 

History of the Colonization of the United States, by George 
Bancroft, Boston, 1837, 8vo. 



NOTE vn. 

This junction of the sword and the word, though more conso- 
nant with the missionary sympathies of another church, and of 
an earlier period, had a few years before the date of this sugges- 
tion, an advocate in a prebendary of the Church of England better 
known, however, by his geographical than by his theological la- 
bours. In *' The Epistle dedicatorie" prefixed by Richard Hak- 
luyt, to his "Virginia richly valued by description of the Maine 
" land of Florida, her next neighbour, London, 1609, 4to," occurs 
this sentence. " To handle them (the natives) gently, while gentle 
" courses may be found, it will be without comparison the best; 
"but if gentle polishing will not serve them, Ave shall not want 
" hammerous and rough Masons enow; I meane our old soldiours 
" trained up in the Netherlands to square and prepare tliem to our 
" preachers hands." 



PARERGON. 



The impression that there was a grant of this description 
made but not acted upon, is formed by encountering notices 
of the subject entirely unconnected with the printed labours 
of Beauchamp Plantagenet. Heylyn, a contemporary writer 
noticing in his Cosmography, the Dutch occupancy of a 
portion of North America claimed by England: adds, but 
without giving his authority, " Complaint whereof being 
" made unto King Charles, and by him represented to the 
'* States of Holland, it was declared by the said States in a 
" public instrument, that they were no ways interested in it; 
" but that it was a private undertaking of the West Indian 
" Company of Amsterdam, and so referred it wholly to his 
*' majesty's pleasure. Which being declared, a commission 
"' was forthwith granted to Sir George Culvert to plant the 
" Southern parts thereoff, which lie next to Virginia, by the 
" name of Maryland, the like not long after to Sir Edmund 
" Ployden for planting and possessing the more Northern 



DESCRIPTION OF NEW ALBION. 29 

*' parts, which He towards New England, by the name of New 
,' Albion."— (Lib. IV, p. 90, edit., 1G69.) This is repeated 
in a pocket commentary of the first settlement of New Jer- 
sey. New York, 1759, 4to. 

In Burke's History of the commoners of Great Britain 
Ireland, occurs this passage. " The second son of Francis 
" Plowden, of Plowden in Shropshire, was Edmund of 
" Wansted in Hampshire, styled in his will 29 July, 1655; 
"Sir Edmund Plowden, Lord Earl Palatine Governor, 
" and Captain General of the Province of New Albion, 
" in America." (III. 253.) Berry in his work before refer- 
red to, makes no mention of Plowden of Wansted in Hamp- 
shire. 

It is probable that Beverly alludes to this subject, when 
remarking, that the "precedent of my Lord Baltimore's 
" grant was hint enough for other courtiers (who never in- 
" tended a settlement as my Lord did) to find out some- 
" thing of the same kind to make money of." — (Hist, of Vir- 
ginia, pi. I. 49.) 

In the year 1784, a certain Charles Varlo announced 
himself in this city as agent for the Earl of Albion. He 
produced as his credentials, a pamphlet containing among 
other documents, " A true copy of the grant of King Charles 
" the First, to Sir Edmund Plowden, Earl Palatine of Albion, 
" of the Province of New Albion, in America, June 21, 
" A.D. 1634." This instrument is obnoxious to several 
objections: — The style is not that of the period assigned 
to it. 

Edmund Plowden holds his dignity of Earl Palatine of 
New Albion, in America, from Charles I., " as of our crown 
of Ireland in capite," depends upon "our royal person and 
imperial crown as King of Ireland," and the document 
seemingly emanates from the deputy general of Ireland at 



30 DESCRIPTION OF 

Dublin. It is true, that James I.,^as King of Scotland, 
granted Nova Scotia to Sir William Alexander, to be 
held as a fief of the Scottish crown. This anomalous 
procedure, so regarded by civilians, of James, indicated 
his desire to elevate the dignity of Scotland, but no 
such views with regard to Ireland have been imputed to 
his son. 

Absolute precision in American geographical statistics 
was not to be expected in 1634, but as the grantee had 
" formerly discovered at his own great charges and ex- 
" penses a certain island and region, and amply, and co- 
" piously peopled the same with five hundred persons," 
something less vague than the following description might 
have been looked for; " all that entire island near the con- 
" tinent, or Terra Firma of JVorth Virginia, called the Isle 
"of Plowden, or Long Island, and lying near, or between 
" the thirty-ninth and fortieth degree of North latitude, to- 
" gether with part of the continent in Terra Firma aforesaid, 
" near adjoining, described to begin from the point of an 
" angle of a certain promontory called Cape May, and from 
** thence to the Westward for the space of forty leagues, 
" running by the River Delaioare, and closely following its 
" course by the North latitude, unto a certain rivulet there, 
" arising from a spring of the Lord Baltimore's, in the lands of 
" Maryland, and the summit aforesaid to the South, where 
" it touches, joins, and determines in all its breadth; from 
" thence takes its course into a square, leading to the 
"North by a right line for the space of forty leagues; and 
" from thence likewise by a square, inclining towards the 
" East in a right line, for the space of forty leagues to the 
" river, and part of Readier Cod, and descend to a savan- 
" nab, touching and including the top of Sandheey, where 
" it determines; and from thence towards the South by a 



NEW ALBION. 31 

" square stretching to a savannah which passes by, and 
" washes the shore of the island of Plowden aforesaid, to 
" the point of promontory of Cape May above mentioned, 
" and terminates where it began." This suspiciously misty 
outline contrasts strongly with the clearness and precision, 
with which the boundaries of Maryland were laid down two 
years before. 

Lastly, — This instrument, slightly altered, is as close a 
version of Lord Baltimore's grant, as could be effected by 
a very indifferent Latin scholar. The translator, not fa- 
miliar with the construction of the language of the original 
paper, sometimes makes several English sentences out of 
one Latin, at others, reverses this process and the destruc- 
tion of all sense and meaning is the result. Some of his 
verbal renderings are curious — as a specimen, " Insulas et 
Insululas natas vel nascendas," become " Islands and isles 
floating, or to float." I may remark here, that the char- 
ter for Maryland, as it appears in Hazards State Papers L 
327, is defective, abruptly terminating with the first four 
words of a sentence — Eo quod expressa mentio. This defi- 
ciency is partly supplied in the Varlo contribution to the 
same vol., p. 1G9. I say partly, because the additional sen- 
tence is without meaning as it now stands. 

One of the documents in the pamphlet is " Registered in 
St. Mary in Maryland, along with many other deeds con- 
cerning Albion." Rather an odd place of deposite for 
them, — an infant settlement in another jurisdiction. I 
wonder whether Mr. Varlo was aware, that the papers 
deposited in St. Mary were removed by Clayborne and 
Ligle, and that most of them were lost 1 if so, he was pre- 
pared to account for the non-appearance of the archives 
of New Albion among the colonial documents of Mary- 
land. 



32 DESCRIPTION OF 

The only copy of Varlo's tract I ever met with was in 

the possession of his legal adviser, the late William Rawle, 
Esq. It was reprinted with the exception of the fourth 
chapter in Hazard's Collection. The portion omitted there 
is here supplied. 



«' CHAPTER IV. 

" The address of the Right Hon. Lord Earl Palatine of Albion, 
to the public. 

" True and lawful heir of Sir Edward Plowden, created 
Earl Palatine of Albion, to whom the charter was granted, 
did, in the late war, with great grief of heart, behold his 
territories invaded, his people harrassed, butchered and 
plundered, and others who had not resolution enough to re- 
sist temptation, persuaded by a ministry who (to say no 
worse) had more their own than their country's interest at 
heart, to imbrue their hands in the blood of their kindred, 
friends, and countrymen, and instead of keeping up the 
dignity of the crown, to trample under foot, all charters, 
grants, and laws, which ought to be kept sacred by all ho- 
nest and true men to their king and country. 

" What faith can be expected amongst men, if those to 
whom they look up for protection, be the first who set an 

example of perfidy? 

" The Earls predecessors bled for and conquered his terri- 
tories, and at great expense and trouble, peopled, settled, 
and planted the Christian religion therein, as appears by the 
leases he granted to Sir Thomas Danby, Lord Monson, 
Mr. Price, Captain Claybourne, &c. &c., wherein he bound 
each to find a number of men, to assist in that laudable 
undertaking. 



NEW ALBION. 33 

•* The situation of Lord Albion was very precarious at the 
breaking out of the late war, for though he detested the 
(language held out by the ministry) of being brought to un- 
conditional submission, well knowing, that tyranny must 
follow such haughty ideas; yet he could not follow the dic- 
tates of his own heart without breaking allegiance with 
the king, and which the charter forbids, therefore was 
obliged to stand neuter and wait the event, which by the 
assistance of the King of Kings, his worthy countrymen suc- 
ceeded to his wish. 

" When King Charles granted the charter, he seemed to 
have a true idea, how necessary it was for a colony or state 
to be governed by their own laws and members, (for says 
he) much mischief may ensue from waiting the tedious pro- 
cess of law, carried on at so great a distance from the 
mother country; neither can people at such a distance be 
so proper judges of its constitution as those who reside on 
the spot, as they certainly must know best how to enact 
laws for the good of a state, who assists in the vineyard, to 
bear the burden thereoff. 

" Therefore, Lord Albion will always think himself very 
happy in concurring with, and assisting congress, and his 
countrymen, in planning and maintaining every act that 
may be passed for their ease, peace and welfare, so long as 
he has the honour of signing 

" Albion." 

And now I suspect that critics in historical literature will 
place in the same category, the productions of Plantagenet 
and Varlo. As that of the latter is also appealed to by Mr. 
Bancroft, in his history of the colonization of the United 
States, p. 296, it behooves him to consider whether the 
truly recherche historical repast he has prepared, is im- 
proved by the addition of Mr. Varlo's floating island. 
5 



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